A Muffin Top Full Of Cupcakes

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Sheridan's is a uniquely bottled liqueur consisting of two separate sections, separated by glass, but fused together. One section is filled with a black liqueur, consisting of coffee and whiskey flavors, the other is filled with a white liqueur of milk white chocolate.

Sounds good? It is! If you haven't tried it you definitely should!
We don't have any alcohol on my house, except wine and Sherindan's...
We like it so much that I decided to make it a cupcake, and let me tell you it was delicious! The coffee liqueur gives this cupcakes a very special taste, not to strong , balanced with the white part of the frosting. A very adult dessert to enjoy like a kid!

To make the cupcakes you will need:

2 1/3 cups of all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup of very strong coffee , cold.
1/4 cup of milk
2 tablespoons of the black part of your Sheridan's ( if you don't have any, you can use any coffee liqueur, like Kahlua)
3/4 cup of butter at room temperature
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs

Procedure:

Preheat your oven at 350. Prepare your muffin liners.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
On a cup mix together the coffee, milk and the coffee liqueur.
On your mixer beat the butter and the sugar for 5 min. Or until creamy light texture. Add the eggs, one by one. Waiting for one egg to incorporate fully to add the next one. Add the dry mix, then the coffee mix, beat just until all the ingredients are icorporated.
Fill the liners 3/4 and bake for 20 min. Or until the toothpick come out clean.

For the Sherindans frosting I made two, one out of the white part and one out of the black part. If you are using any other coffee liqueur feel free to use all the ingredients of the two frostings together but adding five tablespoons or six of your liqueur, and add more icing sugar to achieve the desired consistency.

Cream first the butter and the cream cheese , then add the liqueur and the condensed milk. Mix well. And add the icing sugar little by little.

For the coffee part of the frosting:

7 onz. Cream cheese room temperature
2 onz. Butter room temperature
3 tablespoons of the black part of the liqueur. Or four if you want a more powerful flavour.
1/2 teaspoon of coffee ( NOT the instant one)
1 1/2 or 2 cups icing sugar.
Brown food colorant

The procedure is the same. Cream the butter and the cream cheese until you cant tell them apart. Add the liqueur and the coffee. Mix well. And then little by little and in a low speed add the icing sugar.
Color brown.

I added the colorant to give the same effect as the Sheridans, feel free to omit this if you want.

And here it is! A wow recipe that everyone will love!
I really hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

I will keep baking, even if my two little helpers are on vacations and dancing all around the house! My little one is walking now! I am sooo proud of her! But keeping her safe is a full time job now!

Also, I will be working with royal icing for the first time! So cross your fingers for me and expect a lot of pictures!

Friday, July 12, 2013

So easy to make! and so delicious, this is one of my favorite recipes. Everyone loves coconut and white chocolate. The combination of both make this cupcakes crazy good!. And what if I tell you I used a cake mix box to make them? These are perfect to shine at any get together or event.

Today is my birthday!. I have to confess that each year gets harder and harder to fully understand just how old I am... I remember when my mother was my age!
I have the same friends that I had at 6 , I still hang out with my college friends, everything remains the same, except is not, we are not six or 19, we are all mothers and wifes, my eyes are different, my body carries the scars of my pregnancies, is wider, softer. I dont like to party anymore, I rather have a good dinner with good company. I love my family more than I love myself. All my money is for them, I dont care anymore if I have fancy clothes, or the latest handbag, I am all grown up and my strength is not in myself anymore, my strengh, my force, comes from my husband, my mother, my little ones. I feel stronger and wiser, but I am more afraid now, because now I am not alone.

And, to celebrate, a friend of mine came to my house and gave me a present, she came without warning and I allways like to offer something to my guests, when I saw her on my porch I ran to my kitchen , made a list of ingredients and made her these.

If you want to make them too, you will need: (yields 12 to 15 cupcakes)

A white cake mix. ( my favorite is Duncan Hines)

The number of eggs that your box requires.

The amount of oil that your box requires.

1/2 cup whole milk.

1/2 cup coconut flavored yogurt.

3/4 cup shredded coconut ( unsweetened).

Just mix all the ingedients together, fill your cupcake liners and bake as directed on the box!

They are that easy!

For the White Chocolate Frosting:

7 oz white chocolate for baking, chopped.

8 oz ( 250 gr) softened cream cheese.

1/4 cup ( 50 ml.) softened butter

1/ 2 tsp ( 2 ml.) vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

Melt the white chocolate on the microwave making 30 second intervals , stirring it every interval. Let the chocolate cool a little. Meanwhile, on your mixer cream butter and cream cheese until uniform in color and texture. Then add the chocolate and vanilla, mix until well blended. Slowly add the powdered sugar, beat well.

This is my absolute favorite frosting ever! I don´t lie, I love it! I could eat it with a spoon directly from the bowl ( well, in fact I do that) . I found this amazing recipe on the Pampered Chef . I just use more powdered sugar to make it thick and I use 1 oz. more of white chocolte so the sugar wont drown the flavor. This recipe makes white chocolate cupcakes too! and they are good, but they require inserting white chocolate truffles. Yumy! right? But I found that all that white chocolate on one bite can be to much for some people (well, most people) so I like to keep it a little less sweet. ( just a little! haha)

I used a 2E noozle to pipe them and added just a dash of edible golden glitter to make them special.

Happy Birthday to me!

If you want to make this with the glitter , this is how I made them:

Once you have the noozle on your piping bag, open your piping bag as opened as you can , and with the help of a spoon, put some frosting on just one side in a very thin line, start the closest to the noozle as you can and continue your frosting line to the top of your piping bag, stop when you reach the middle or a little more. then grab with your fingers your edible glitter and let it go on the line (just like a glue and glitter DIY proyect) trying to stick as many glitter as you can to your frosting line. Stand your piping bag on top of a plate because all the non sticked glitter is going to fall!, then fill your piping bag as usual and pipe as desired.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Creamy, rich in flavour and texture, this frosting is a delight that will enhance any cupcake or cake. If you are vegan you will love this! And if you are not, you will love this too!

My husband is my toughest critic, he allways give me a straight opinion, and he was blown away by this! I also had the fortune to share my creations with a very popular vegan coffee shop owner and she praised my cupakes a lot! She wanted to buy them for her clients!

I've been busy creating splendid vegan cupcakes for this vegan coffee shop. I felt like a mad scientist making all this experiments, taking notes, testing the product and everything a good baker is required to do... I am exausted but joyful
to share all my "findings" with you...

So here it is: The best coconut frosting ever! For the vegan and the non vegan too!
A little warning here: the coconut will make hard the task of piping, I spread it on my cupcakes, but if you wish to do a more fancy piping I would recomend you put the coconut on the food processor until the consistency is very very fine... maybe that could help. When you taste it you will not care at all that you can't pipe coconut roses!

Start by beating your margarine until light and creamy.
At a low speed add the coconut and beat well. At this point use the vanilla and the coconut milk to thin your mixture, mix well.
Then, at the lowest speed of your mixer add the icing sugar one spoon at a time so you won't end up with a sugar cloud on your kitchen, until firm. If you think the mixture is very very thick add coconut milk one teaspoon at a time. If you feel the mixture is too soft abd runny, add some more icing sugar one tablespoon at a time.
Spread on cupcakes or cake and enjoy the party in your mouth! Hahaha.

Once my cupcakes were frosted I added some more coconut on the top, just to make them pretty, you can add grated white chocolate ( if you don't care much for the vegan twist) or any other yummy ingredient you can think of!

What do you think? If you are making this please let me know if you liked it as much as I did!
Share your ideas to improve this! ( if you can) remember I want to make the best vegan cupcakes to share with all of you!

In the next posts I will be sharing more of my vegan creations... And non vegan too!

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Every mom on the face of this earth knows that when it comes to movies and children there is no such thing as "watching it once". Especially when your little one is 3 and the movie is Snow White.
My little helper decided she wanted to see Snow white , and then decided she wanted to see it again, and the day after she asked me to put the video one more time. All week long I watched Snow White
even when my daughter was not in the t.v room she cried when I turned it of...
I caught myself singing Heigh Ho in the shower, and in my car, whistling it in the morning and before I went to bed.

All this Snow White and the seven dwarfs inspired me to make this cake pops... I think they came out great!

My favorite is the witch , and the evil queen, well , Snow White is so cute too!

Evil Queens crown is made of fondant and the witch cape too, I used a mini marshmallow as Evil Queens neck . Underneath the witches cape, there is a kiss chocolate, a sweet surprise that also

gives that pointy shape for the cape.

Hey! I know I am not Bakerella, but I am very pleased with these! Besides, I made them with coffee cupcakes I made the other day and they tasted sooo good! ( wait for the coffee cupcake recipe)

The best part is my daughters reaction, She just cant believe her mother did that! her eyes light up and cant wait to try them. This time she was beside me while I took the pictures the whole time praising my cake pops!

´

Are your kids your biggest fans? The feeling is the best!

I can´t wait to have a Snow White party , there are so many good ideas for one ! and these cake pops are original and beautiful.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Full of taste and perfect vegan chocolate cupcakes with a simple and basic recipe.

I know, a vegan cupcake will never taste like a butter , egg, milk , buttermilk cupcake... If you agree , you havent tried this recipe yet.
A month ago I couldnt make any acceptable chocolate cupcakes , and now I am making vegan chocolate cupcakes... who knew!?

My cousin asked me to make her some cupcakes , ( another bride and groom cupcake batch!) but she wanted them vegan. I didnt make her any promises. I needed to find the best vegan recipe I could find, and I did! Now I will share it with you.

The original recipe was from Chow, the frosting recipe I did it on my own just from reading other recipes... sorry I don´t have a link for the original recipe, I promise I will find it for you later.

Note: Very very important! Do not try them the first hour... seriously! dont! In fact, make them a day or two before you serve them... they come out super pasty. Glue to your mouth, teeth and throat kind of pasty, I almost cried when I tasted them... they looked so beautiful! I then tasted them the day after, and they were much better, and the third day they were superbe! moist but firm and full of chocolate flavour.
I did some changes from the original recipe, I used coconut milk instead of soy milk and other little changes. But here it is a vegan recipe that will satisfy the need of chocolate of everyone; even the non vegan will love them!

You will need:

For the cupcakes: ( yields 12 cupcakes)

1 cup coconut milk

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cocoa powder ( I used Hershey´s)

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt.

For the chocolate frosting:

1 stick good cuality margarine ( room temperature)

2 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup coconut milk

3/ 4 cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make them:

In a large bowl mix the coconut milk with the vinegar and let it curdle while you take out your other ingredients and do the rest of the recipe.

Preheat your oven to 350º and prepare your tin with the muffin liners.

Use a bowl to sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda , baking powder and salt .

Now add the vanilla, sugar and oil to the coconut bowl and using a handheld mixer mix them together until very well blended.

Add half of the dry ingredients, mix for a minute, then add the other half, mix until there are no lumps.

Fill your liners 3/4 and bake them from 18 to 22 minutes, or until your toothpick on the center comes out clean . Take out of the oven and let cool for a few minutes, then transfer them to the cooling rack until they cooled completly.

Now comes the hard part... put them in a container without putting them one on top of the other and wait for a day, or two. ( I stored them on my mini oven)

Make the frosting minutes before you serve them, or it will get to hard to pipe.

To make the frosting use a stand up mixer and beat the margarine until smooth, then add the icing sugar little by little. By the end you will have a lumpy horrible looking frosting, not to worry, keep on beating, add the milk, mix it a little using a spatula, with your hand, then add the cocoa, mix it a little by hand , add the vanilla and beat again with the mixer on a medium speed until all ingredients are combined. Is it too thick? add some more coconut milk ( a teaspoon will do it) is it to runny? add some more icing sugar... Enjoy!

A big standing ovation for all you vegans out there!!! Who said you don´t enjoy your food?

Friday, June 21, 2013

My best friend´s little boy is celebrating his first birthday today!. So my friend asked me to make some cupcakes for the special occasion.
Trepsi cupcakes! Who is Trepsi you ask? He is a very well known little clown here in Mexico that little babies love!! My 3 year old still sings Trepsi songs, and his fiend musi.
These were a challenge , being the first one ever, making this Trepsi cupcakes. But they were so much fun to make!. I think that all the planning and creativity you need to create a new cake is my favorite part of the whole decorating cakes thing.
Besides! I am getting a little bit bored with the bride and groom cupcakes that by the way I made more yesterday for another event! They are a total hit! and I am grateful to them because they had given me a lot of work, but they are not longer fun! So planing how to do this cute clown and his bird friend Musi was a breeze of fresh air in my kitchen! hahaha

I am proud to present Trepsi and his friend Musi...

cute right? , they have a baby gym that is totally famous where I live...

and... these are my cupcakes!

They are made out of fondant, the nose is a mini m&m. The cupcakes are banana with chocolate chips and turned out delicious!!!

These are the Musi cupcakes... I was planning doing them different, but my friend wanted them like this, I think they were cute too!

Made out of caramel frosting, with eyes and beak of fondant... To cute to eat!!!

So... of all this cake, cupcake , cake pop making... which part is your favorite part?

Do you mind doing the same cupcakes over and over ? or you enjoy the challenge?

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

What a week Ive had! I felt on an episode writen by Shonda Rhymes! (Grey´s Anatomy, Scandal, Private Practice), My husband was mugged, thanks to God he is ok. , but the thieves punched him on the face. Then he crashed his car, then he crashed mine! Now we have no cars, and the moral of the family is down. And the cherry on the top of the cake... Mexico had an earthquake! we normally don´t feel anything because we live on a house, but when we felt the earth shake beneath us we were very scared! All this things in a week or so!. The bright side? we are fine, all this bad things happened and we are perfectly fine ( my husbands cheek cant say the same) but we are ok.

I needed a distraction, something good , and it came !
A client called me, she needed 60 mini cupcakes, 30 vanilla brides, 30 chocolate grooms for her brother´s wedding event, she needed them wrapped individually and to take them in something acceptable for the event ( bye bye cardboard boxes), also, she wanted to take them to the event by herself ( so bye bye typical tray or they would fall ) ...

This meant Making 60 cupcakes in two days, no car to use if something bad happened (like I ran out of oil, which I did) with no help, and to make her something pretty ... My answer? Challenge accepted!

I baked the cupcakes the day before.. And disaster! They were huge! But I had no way of doing them again... So I prayed to have a good looking, great tasting product and kept working... I had to think of an idea to make the cupcake presentation, and my husband pointed me to an old basket on top the fridge .. How about that? ... Literally I could hear the bells and the haleluya on my head! I had some black fabric much like silk from my DIY days and felt. I covered the basket first with the felt using a silicone gun, then I covered it with the black fabric... Asked my hubby to bring me white ribbon and a white bow that I also atached using the gun. I barely made them on time but they were beautiful and I was very very pleased with them .

Part of the appeal of the cupcake is that they are beautiful, and in my opinion the presentation is part of that, the cupcake first enter the eye and then please the mouth. To make a good display all you need is imagination ( and a husband like mine, haha) , the possibilities are endless!

How do you think you could have done it?
How do you display your cupcakes? Please share ideas!

About Me

It all started with Pinterest, at first it was only fun, looking at outfits, admiring all that nail art, trying (and failing miserably) all that DIY projects, then I realized I could actually learn something useful from people with experience and a disposition to teach. This is my way of sharing my journey through marriage, motherhood and the adventure of learning all about cupcakes and pop cakes and their dirty little secrets. You could say my muffin top ( wich I hate by the way) is full of cupcakes!